My crew are on school holidays – hooray!!!

Holidays means slower mornings, adventures, time together …. and food. So much food!

I’m always astounded at how much more my kids neeeeed to eat in the holidays, when compared to what they eat from their lunchboxes during the school term. They tell me that it is because at school they stuff in what they can super fast so that the don’t miss out on their precious play time – apparently holiday are then for catch up!

These gorgeous bars are fibre filled, have a good serve of polyunsaturated fats and with a sweetness that comes from whole fruit, they’ll satisfy you and keep you going for ages. They work well as morning tea on the run too.

• 1 cup GF weetbix
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats OR 1 1/2 cups fruit free GF muesli
•  1/4 cup wholemeal spelt flour OR plain GF flour mix plus 1/2 tsp psyllium
• 1/2 tsp GF baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 heaped tbsp each of hemp, flax and pumpkin seeds
• 8 medjool dates, pitted
• 1 large overripe banana
• 1 heaped tbsp seed butter (or nut butter that suits)*
• 1 medium egg*
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1/4 cup milk of choice

*To make these vegan, remove the egg and add in a 2nd tbsp of the seed butter. Simple!

Place all of the dry ingredients together in your processor/thermal cooker/bullet and pulse a few times until the ingredients are roughly chopped and well combined. Then set aside.

Place the dates, seed butter, milk and vanilla into your thermal cooker. Cook on 90C, Speed 2 for 3 mins. Add in the banana and cook on speed 3, 90C for a further minute. Then boost up to speed 4 for 8 seconds.

To cook this one without a thermal cooker, place the dates, seed butter, milk and vanilla into a saucepan and cook over a low heat, whilst whisking regularly until the mixture is well melted – the dates will still be quite large. Add in the banana and continue to cook, whilst whisking for a further 2 minutes. Then transfer the whole mix to a blender or processor, then process until fairly smooth.

Now add the dry ingredients back to the wet and process until just combined (Speed 2, about 15 seconds). If you are using an egg, add it in here. The mixture will be quite thick and sticky.

Scrape into a line 20×20 baking tray and use a spatula to smooth out and press down into the tin.

Place into a preheated 180C oven and bake for 18-20 minutes until risen and golden brown.

Allow to cool for about 15 minutes in the tray before moving to a cooling rack  to finish cooling before slicing in to 8 bars.

These will last several days in an airtight container in the fridge, or freeze them individually to pop into lunchboxes or grab on your way to work.

Enjoy